Long-running Christie and pigs that are shifty – take the Thursday quiz

Agatha Christie in November 1969. But when did The Mousetrap start its run? Photograph: Bettmann Archive

Welcome once again to the Thursday quiz, the moment that I like to think signals the beginning of the end of the middle of the week. No anagrams for you this time, but your other regular and beloved features are all here: Kate Bush, Ron from Sparks, and a particularly tricky hidden Doctor Who reference to spot. It is just for fun. Honestly, there has been no thought put into awarding prizes at all. Let us know how you get on in the comments.

The Thursday quiz, No 31

1. 

   BRING HOME THE BACON: Last week, Hong Kong authorities captured and euthanised several wild boars as they began a campaign to reduce their numbers in urban areas around the financial centre. What triggered the move?

   1. Wild boars had wandered into the foyer of the stock market and caused trading to be halted for the day

   2. 30-50 feral hogs had invaded gardens on the outskirts of the city, including leader Carrie Lam's

   3. One had bitten a policeman

   4. The boars had announced that they were forming a European Super League™ but had to back down a couple of days later

2. 

   PER ASPERA AD ASTRA: Nasa's Dart mission was due up into space this week. What are they planing to do with it?

   1. Measure the sun's electromagnetic field

   2. Smash it into an asteroid

   3. Photograph potential moon landing sites for the Artemis moon-landing programme

   4. Send it all the way to probe Uranus

3. 

   GCSE SCIENCE CORNER: Biology this week. Which of these words best describes a prokaryotic organism?

   1. Animal

   2. Plant

   3. Fungus

   4. Bacteria

4. 

   EDITH PIAF SAID IT BETTER THAN ME: That's a heartwarming 2017 song for the easily moved by Sparks. But that's not important right now. Where was Edith Piaf born?

   1. Paris, France

   2. Montpellier, France

   3. Bastia, Corsica

   4. Algiers, Algeria

5. 

   TO BOLDLY GO: The storyboards for a doomed 1970s film version of a sci-fi classic left unmade by Franco-Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky sold this week for €2.66m (£2.24m) at auction, about 100 times the expected price. Which book was he proposing to film?

   1. Dune

   2. The Kraken Wakes

   3. Brave New World

   4. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

6. 

   ENSEMBLE CAST: When the Holy Triumvirate of Noakes/Purves/Judd (pictured here with legend Valerie Singleton as well) were broken up as permanent Blue Peter presenters, who was the next permanent presenter to be added to the show?

   1. Konnie Huq

   2. Simon Groom

   3. Peter Duncan

   4. Sarah Greene

7. 

   MORE ANCIENT BRITISH KIDS' TV: Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin made Ivor the Engine, but what was the name of the dragon that lived in Ivor's firebox?

   1. Goronwy

   2. Draco

   3. Gruff

   4. Idris

8. 

   ANCIENT PLAYS: After being premiered in Nottingham in October, Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap opened at the Ambassadors Theatre in London on 25 November the same year. Which year?

   1. 1952

   2. 1958

   3. 1961

   4. 1966

9. 

   WHAT'S IN A NAME: The two massive gantry cranes in Belfast's dock were completed in 1969 and 1974. What are they known as?

   1. Samson and Goliath, after the biblical figures

   2. Hercules and Prometheus, after the Greek mythical figures

   3. Lir and Lugh, after the Celtic god of the sea and the legendary heroic High King of Ireland

   4. John and Paul, joking nicknames after the Beatles. John is the bigger one because he said the Beatles were bigger than Jesus

10. 

    YOU CAN'T KEEP A GOOD MOSAIC DOWN: A priceless Roman mosaic that once decorated a ship used by the emperor Caligula was rediscovered after it had been where for almost 50 years?

    1. At the entry to a steam baths in San Diego

    2. Hanging up behind the bar at a casino in Las Vegas

    3. Used as a coffee table in an apartment in New York City

    4. In the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying "Beware of the Leopard"

11. 

    WORLD NEWS: Next week, Dame Sandra Mason will replace the British monarch as head of state and become the first president of which Caribbean island state?

    1. Bermuda

    2. Barbados

    3. Bahamas

    4. Barbuda

12. 

    ON THIS DAY: On 25 November 1596 an attack on a church is considered to have started what was brilliantly known as the cudgel war or Klubbekriget. In which modern-day country did it happen?

    1. Denmark

    2. Belgium

    3. The Netherlands

    4. Finland

13. 

    MUSIC: Having travelled all the way from Australia to meet her, Channel Seven’s Matt Doran's prestigious interview with whom was canned when he let slip that he hadn't listened to her latest album in full yet?

    1. Taylor Swift

    2. Billie Eilish

    3. Adele

    4. Kate Bush

14. 

    TRUE OR FALSE: The Greek island of Vulcano has ordered a partial evacuation and banned tourists after an increase in seismic activity and gases in the area?

    1. True

    2. False

Solutions

1:C - Last week a wild boar knocked down a police officer and bit his leg, causing a deep wound and prompting Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam to warn the government would increase penalties for those who feed them. The boars, not the police, I guess., 2:B - Its target is the Didymos system – a harmless pair of asteroids consisting of a 163-metre “moonlet” asteroid called Dimorphos that orbits a larger 780-metre asteroid called Didymos. It might be harmless now, but I should imagine it will be absolutely furious after they wallop it with a spaceship., 3:D - Yes. Bacteria are among the best-known prokaryotic organisms, which is any organism that lacks a distinct nucleus and other organelles due to the absence of internal membranes. Now you know., 4:A - Édith Giovanna Gassion was born on the 19 December 1915 in Paris. You can tell by his face that Ron from Sparks thinks you should have known that., 5:A - Long considered a mythical object, the notebook of drawings for the film triggered a bidding war at Christie’s in Paris. It had been supposed to bring together some major stars of the period, including Salvador Dalí, Mick Jagger and Pink Floyd – but fell apart after four years due to lack of funding. Christie’s admitted their initial valuation had failed to account for interest triggered by the new version of the film starring Timothée Chalamet., 6:B - It was Groom. They were difficult shoes to fill, and he had his knockers. British readers of a certain age will know exactly what I've done there. Simon Groom was followed in turn by Christopher Wenner and Tina Heath, who both had quite short stints on the programme, before Sarah Greene, Peter Duncan and Janet Ellis joined. Sadly, Wenner died in October of this year., 7:D - It was Idris. He used to sing in the local choir and then cook their BBQ food with his fiery breath. What a good little dragon., 8:A - The Mousetrap opened in the West End in London in 1952 and ran continuously until 16 March 2020. It has had more than 27,500 performances. By tradition, at the end of each performance, audiences are asked not to reveal the identity of the killer to anyone outside the theatre, to ensure that the end of the play is not spoilt for future audiences. Shhhhhh., 9:A - References to two Biblical characters with reputations for strength, they were constructed by the German engineering firm Krupp for the Harland & Wolff shipyard., 10:C - Incredibly, it is reported that Dario Del Bufalo, an Italian expert on ancient stone and marble, was giving a lecture on Roman artefacts while visiting New York when he overheard someone point at a picture of it in a book and say: "Oh, Helen, look, that’s your mosaic.", 11:B - The island’s governor general, she was elected almost unanimously by the former British colony’s parliament in October. A 72-year-old judge and former ambassador, she will be sworn in on 30 November, the 55th anniversary of her country’s independence from Britain in 1966. I know Bermuda isn't in the Caribbean by the way, it is just a wrong answer that begins with a 'B'. It is a point off if you mention this in the comments., 12:D - It was an uprising in Finland, which at that time was part of the kingdom of Sweden, by people angry about the landlord class imposing taxes, so they took arms with blunt instruments, hence cudgel war., 13:C - Doran said he simply missed the email that contained a preview of the album. I guess if you've just scored the bestselling album of the year with just three days sales you can do what you want publicity-wise?, 14:B - It is false. The mayor of Vulcano HAS given such an order, but the island of Vulcano is about 25km north of Sicily and belongs to Italy, not Greece. It – and Vulcan, the Roman God of fire – is where we get the English word volcano from. If it was a Greek island, we'd all be saying Ifaísteio (ηφαίστειο) instead of volcano. Probably. My Greek is extremely rudimentary.

Scores

1. 0 and above.

   We hope you had fun – let us know how you got on in the comments!

2. 5 and above.

   We hope you had fun – let us know how you got on in the comments!

• If you do think there has been an egregious error in one of the questions or answers, please feel free to email martin.belam@theguardian.com but remember, the quiz master’s word is always final, and you don’t want to be like the many people who emailed him last week to haughtily point out that Kansas City was not in the state of Kansas but in Missouri without taking two seconds to check first whether Kansas City, Kansas also existed. Which it does.